From award-winning author Ruth Rendell – 'without a doubt the grand dame of British crime fiction,' (The Gazette) – comes the chilling new Inspector Wexford novel.Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savoury-a human hand. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton shroud. The post mortem cannot reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue is a crack in one of the dead man's ribs.Although the police database covers a relatively short period of time, it stores a long list of Missing Persons. Men, women and children disappear at an alarming rate-hundreds every day. So Wexford knows he is going to have a job on his hands to identify the corpse. And then, only about twenty...